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It has been 3 years since Xingchen left the province to go to Shanghai. He is still a struggling university student but now he is more financially stable by working at a busy convenience store. It is far from his university and so he is relieved that he won’t be recognized by the customers. His favorite hobby is guessing the job of the customers when he is free. There is a regular customer though that he wasn’t sure what the job was yet because he doesn’t have any obvious clues about his job. He doesn't have any confidence in asking too because the man is quite aloof and he is always prepared, for example; Xingchen will ask if cash or QR payment, the man has already prepared his phone with its QR reader open. The other weird thing about this man is he never purchased food from this convenience store. He always has this simple looking medium sized lunch box when he comes in and everyday was a different dish.
Xingchen is confident as a home cook but there is something in this man’s dishes that piques his interest. In a Saturday night shift, which he doesn’t really get because he usually goes out for drinks, the man was there as well but with something else now. There is a box with him with opaque plastic walls. A beautiful phoenix candy is on top of a beautiful volcano designed cake. Without thinking much, he went to the customer to get a closer look. “Would you like to see it without a cover?” This question woke the shop attendant up. He was so embarrassed but he nodded. He noticed though that the customer’s hands are calloused. “A candy maker?” he murmured. “You can say I am. I am more of a chocolatier though. This piece is for my friend’s husband. They will pick it up here.”
“Is your work close here?” he asks as he inspects the beautiful shining candy standing proudly atop the cake. “Yeah, I remove my coat when I go out of the bakery. I go out to have a breather so I always eat here. If you are interested in bread you can visit our store. I make custom orders mostly though. I am not the baker for the bread.” Xingchen is surprised how calm and husky this man’s voice is. “I would go some time.” The other man nods as if he was satisfied with the attendant’s answer.
“But may I ask something about your lunch dishes? I would confess now and beg for forgiveness, good sir.” He bowed repeatedly but was shocked when the customer spoke. “Not good sir but Zichen. Song Zichen. How about you? I always see you at lunch time but never at nights like this.”
“Nice to see you sir Zichen, I am Xiao Xingchen. I noticed that the contents of your lunch box are always special so I wanted to ask if you have any tips for making them.” He lifted his head back and saw a smiling man. It wasn’t a full lip smile but a small one however he felt the sincerity of it.
“My lunch box? I do meal prep every weekend. That was my job when I was in the US, I worked for a food prep subscription company. I did that for a year and a half, only until I can finish my chocolatier classes. And by the way, I don’t feel comfortable being called “sir” I just turned 21.”
“ YOU ARE THE SAME AGE AS ME?” the smaller man screamed. “Are you in your 20s too? Just call me Zichen. No need for formalities.”
“Okay, Zichen. Food prep sounds nice but a poor student like me doesn’t have money nor time for it even for weekends.” He sighs. “ When is your next shift?”
“Huh?”
“When is your next shift?” the man fixes his cake back to its box.
“On Tuesday, afternoon.” Xingchen shyly answers.
“See you then.” The other man picks up the cake and bids goodbye. The other man was left there alone.
Xingchen went to work that Tuesday, still puzzled by what happened last time. He was kept busy by the unending flow of customers though. At 12:30, the man he talked to last Saturday appeared with a suspiciously big brown bag.
“Welcome sir! I mean Zichen. Is this all?” He showed him the 1 black coffee cans the man put at the counter. “Yeah and please accept this.” The brown bag was passed on to him. He saw tons of bread in it but it is unusually heavy for a bag of pastries. “I won’t eat here today, just picking up some drinks. Please eat the one at the bottom on your break.”
“Ah, thanks.” are the only words he answered as he shows the man the QR and their transaction is finished. Zichen waved his hand as a goodbye and Xingchen was excited to get what’s under the bread. In his break, he happily shoved his hand inside the brown bag and a hard plastic box can be felt under all of the soft bread. He pulled out the pieces of bread from the inside and found a big lunch box full of healthy food. When he took it out, a business card came flying out of the paper bag too. He checked it and saw it was Song Zichen’s and noticed a phone number written by pen at the back. There’s a note written in super small letters saying ‘Message me when you have time’.
The food was superb as he expected, but he was too distracted by the idea of sending a message to the chocolatier. His friends at the university are already teasing him, especially that he brought them bread that obviously came from a place Xingchen doesn’t visit. “You should send him a message, “Thank you for the food. Love you. Kiss. Kiss.” Nie Huaisang comments. “Huh?” His face is beet red. “Stop kidding me.”
“Our Xingchen has found love! Such a great time to be ali.” “Xingchen!” A voice from afar caught their attention. A man Huaisang has never seen before is walking towards them. “Tall with a cool air! Are you the chocolatier gu.” Xingchen covered his friend’s mouth right away. “Yeah, I am the chocolatier. Xingchen, did you like the food?”
“Of course! I did!”
“Of course, I did. He said” Huaisang repeats.
“If you aren’t busy on Saturday would you mind joining me in food prepping? I would teach you how to do it from scratch.” Xingchen is tempted to say yes but he is a blushing mess once again and so his friend did what needed to do. “Of course, we don’t have any classes on Saturdays.He is always FREE.” he winked at Xingchen.
“That’s great then. Send me a message later so I can send you the address.” He said and he said goodbye again as he seems to be in a hurry.
That night, Xingchen was pondering on what to say to Zichen. He settled on just sending three emojis; a hi, a thank you, and one for eating. His phone almost flew when a reply arrived less than a minute after he sent it. “It was a small dog emoji saying ‘You’re welcome” and another one emoji was sent. It was a ‘good night’ emoji.
They surprisingly understand each other with just emojis. That Saturday, Xingchen really did go to Zichen’s house and he was asked to stay for dinner in the pretense that “It is lonely to eat hotpot alone.” This weird relationship continued on for half a year, until the New Year’s eve wherein they celebrated together. It ended with, “Will you spend the following years as my boyfriend?”